Doors popping open in flight

"Ol Shy & Bashful" wrote in message
oups.com...
Bob
I participated in an accident investigation years ago on a Beech Queen
Air A65/80 that crashed after a baggage door opened in flight shortly
after takeoff at ABQ. It turned out the baggage was spilling out of the
compartment into the left propellor causing an engine failure. It was
not an aircraft design problem causing the crash, but one of pilot
error. I got involved simply because the aircraft that crashed was one
digit away from the one I was flying at the time and we used it to
attempt duplication of the crash scenario to see if it was aircraft
design or pilot error.

I believe Ben Abruzzo the ballonist also died that way in ABQ in a Cessna
421. He was headed out on a ski trip with a plane load of passengers. The
nose baggage door popped open and skis began to head for the propeller. I
think someone said he intended to shut down the left engine but somehow
wound up shutting them both down. Almost made it back to the runway but hit
a raised road just short and burst into flames.

I found this googling:

February 11, 1985: Ben Abruzzo, a crew member on the Double Eagle II, the
first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean nonstop, was killed along with
several passengers when his twin-engine plane crashed shortly after taking
off from the Albuquerque, New Mexico airport. An investigation showed that
the probable cause of the crash was an external luggage compartment door
which had been left open. The best idea from aircraft data was that he had
pulled back on the gas of the closest prop to the door and then
inadvertently feathered the wrong prop, thus rendering both engines
inoperative. Before his death, Abruzzo was also a member of the first team
to fly a balloon nonstop across the Pacific Ocean.